PHNOM KULEN

Where?   Siem Reap Province, Cambodia

What?     Long-concealed birthplace of the Khmer Empire

SOMEWHERE, BENEATH the rare ancient hardwoods and the cashew nut plantations, the tangled vines and trip-you-up roots, the rubber plants and the banana bushes, the red biting ants and trilling cicadas, an entire city rests. And not just any city. The city that was the origin of a mighty empire, the most powerful the region has ever known, in charge for more than 600 years. It housed god-like kings, cleverly re-engineered the wilderness and provided inspiration for the world’s greatest religious complex. For centuries the once-great capital has slept, lying fitfully beneath a heavy blanket of verdure and neglect; crumbled, decrepit, crippled by nature, war and time. But now, thanks to new technology, its glories are starting to re-emerge ...

The Khmer Empire began in modern-day Cambodia and, at its peak, ruled most of mainland Southeast Asia. Specifically it began at Phnom Kulen – the Mountain of the Lychee – a long, serpent-like sandstone plateau that rises as high as 500 metres (1,640 feet) above the flat Angkorian plain. It was here, in AD 802, that King Jayavarman II declared independence from the kingdoms of Java and, in a ritual performed by a Brahmin priest, was pronounced chakravartin (universal monarch or king of the world).

At that time Phnom Kulen was known as Mahendraparvata, the Mountain of Indra, King of the Gods. It was resource rich, with plentiful sandstone that could be quarried for building and a reliable water supply: a spring on the holy mountain is the source of the Siem Reap River, which flows south past Angkor into the Tonlé Sap Lake. Bamboo rafts loaded with stone could float away down this channel to facilitate the building of temples elsewhere.

Mahendraparvata was a masterstroke of town planning. Arranged around a mountain-topping royal palace, temples and houses lined wide boulevards and a complex network of dykes, dams, ponds and canals was built to control and divert water across the plateau. The ninth-century city also contributed to the wonder of Angkor, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) further south. The eventual capital of the Khmer Empire – not to mention one of the world’s most impressive sites – Angkor represents the peak of Khmer ingenuity, craftsmanship and style. But the sophistication of Phnom Kulen’s Hindu temples and expert hydraulics served as a template. Even after its tenure as capital ended, Kulen remained occupied, right up until the empire fell in the 15th century. Then – just like Angkor – it was largely abandoned.

Phnom Kulen was officially ‘rediscovered’ in 2012. Archaeologists had long surmised that Mahendraparvata might lie buried on this particular mountain, and an aerial survey, using hi-tech laser technology, provided confirmation – and showed it to be far more extensive than previously believed. But while the notion of a ‘lost city re-found’ is romantic, it’s not quite true. Cambodians and their ancestors have been living in this area for thousands of years; a handful of villages remain scattered across Phnom Kulen, where subsistence farmers tend their beans and rice paddies, living in stilted wooden huts. Even if most of the world weren’t aware, they have never forgotten the significance of this sacred summit.

Exploring Phnom Kulen today takes determination. Most travellers have neither time nor inclination to leave the majestic ruins of Angkor in order to spend a few days bouncing over clay-sticky, pot-holed backroads, clambering and bushwhacking through grow-back-as-quick-as-you-scythe-it jungle, getting thorn-snagged and bug-bitten to see far less immediately impressive ruins. Most who do venture this way get only as far as the River of A Thousand Lingas, where the phallic symbols of Shiva have been carved into a riverbed, and to the temple of Preah Ang Thom, where a gilded Buddha reclines and pilgrims flock in droves.

But it’s worth probing further, to get beyond the crowds and to the heart of this ancient empire. To do so requires local knowledge; someone who knows not only where the ruins are and how to navigate the paths between them, but someone who knows where it’s safe to roam. Thanks to its strategic yet hard-to-reach location, Phnom Kulen served as a stronghold for the brutal Khmer Rouge from 1970 until the mid-1990s. From here, these fanatical Communist fighters could hide out and perform acts of sabotage. As a result of their presence, the mountain was both bombed and laid with mines – B-52 craters dint the ground, and unexploded ordnance and landmines remain a serious hazard.

But with a good guide, the mountain will reveal some of its secrets; its vine-strung towers and temples, its ancient brickwork besmirched by lichen and overgrown with bushes and lotus flowers. For instance, navigate the scrub to find the temple of O’Thma Dap, where reliefs of leaves and garlands can still be seen on the age-worn stucco, and Prasat O’Paong, a towering, tangerine-coloured triumph, still standing proud amid the jungle. At Sras Damrei (Elephant Pond), an enormous, moss-fuzzed elephant – hewn from a single sandstone block – stands guarded by lions. At Poeng Tbal, you can admire Shiva, Vishnu and a row of wise men carved into the rock.

Most significant, though, is Rong Chen, a multi-tiered pyramid of sandstone and rust-red laterite that sits at the plateau’s highest point. It was the centrepiece of the royal city, and the very spot where Jayavarman II was made god-like king, kickstarting the superpower that would shape the region for centuries, only to lie largely hidden for many more.